dissabte, 30 d’octubre de 2010

While Halloween may be the order of the day in English speaking countries, Catalans also have a special celebration on the night of the 31st, the eve of All Saints' Day. Families get together and eat special cakes, chestnuts, sweet potatoes ... here's James Taylor.

The possible independence of Catalonia is a long-standing debate but following recent decisions from Madrid, huge protests in Catalonia, and with Catalan elections next month the debate is “hotter”than ever. Over two posts I’ve added a few quotes from a book I’ve just read arguing in favour of independence. I do not have the time or energy to translate it all but a short English summary would read like this:

Spain is a State composed of (at least) three nations, Castilla (or Spain), Catalonia, and the Basques. In an ideal world all three nations would be happy with this situation as the State would treat them all equally and it would be beneficial for all to form a part of this union. However, Spain acts as though Catalonia and the Basques form part of the Spanish nation under them (as opposed to with them) , and over the years has tried to unify all cultural features, and/or annihilate differences, as well as treating them unfairly both economically and politically.

This set-up no longer (if it ever did) has any advantages for Catalonia. Why pay a huge tax bill to Madrid with nothing in return when the market for Catalonia is now the world and not Spain? Why not become an independent State such as Malta, Latvia, or the UK, and enjoy the full benefits of the European Union? Why not be able to enjoy and legislate regarding Catalan culture and language?

The author believes that independence does not have to be requested in Madrid (the answer would be no). If a majority of the Catalan Parliament is in favour, a unilateral declaration of independence should be made and negotiations started with Brussels so as to join the EU.

A brief and too simple explanation, but I’m sure I’ll have more to say over the next few weeks ... today's song needs no explaining!

Still on with Franco´s monument, today I have posted a letter I sent to the local press 2 years ago when there was a popular campaign to have it removed. This failed to get a majority backing in Tortosa’s town hall and failed. However, as we said yesterday, the fight is not over and another attempt is taking place as we speak! In my letter I suggested they look at Sheffield’s Peace Gardens if they want ideas on how to commemorate and promote peace rather than remembering war by outdated fascist monuments.

Today’s song, Walls Come Tumbling Down (1985) by the Style Council tells us how people’s power can achieve whatever we want.

A brief history of Franco and the river Ebro. General Franco led a military uprising against a democratically elected government in Spain in 1936. This led to a civil war which lasted until 1939. Franco, leading a union of fascists, pseudo-fascists, right-wing extremists, catholic extremists, and others of that ilk, received the backing of other fascist powers such as Germany and Italy who provided man-power, weaponry, technology, and money. The democratic government, on the other hand, received very little aid or support from other democratic governments (obviously here we must remember the heroic volunteers of the International Brigades who went where their governments refused to go). England, for example, carried out a dry-run of its non-intervention appeasement policy which would later turn out to be so “successful” regarding Hitler!

Communist Russia did offer some help as the elected government was a left-wing amalgam of various tendencies. I say “help” as this later became more of a hindrance when Russia tried to take control of the situation, facing off stalinists against marxists, or was that leninists against anarchists, or was that trade-unionists against socialists! To cut a long story short, this eventually led to in-fighting and repression amongst the same side!

As with all civil wars, some people took up arms willingly but many were simply recruited depending on which side of the battle line you lived. Most people were more worried about finding money or food to get by, I suppose, than dying for their ideals. Anyway, death, misery, and destruction followed, more so on one side than the other as, while the “lefties” fought with old-fashioned Russian rifles, Franco was trying out Hitler’s new war planes.

The decisive battle for Franco’s victory and entry into Catalonia was the Battle of the Ebro. Thousands of people were killed in mass air-borne bombing raids as a futile resistance effort was crushed by Franco. The war in Spain was already virtually won, and only time and patience would have been necessary to overrun Catalonia but some historians believe that Franco deliberately sought and prolonged this battle so as to serve a lesson no one would forget. Many of the people who died were young men of no more than 16 or 17 years of age, as the recruiting age had become lower and lower for obvious reasons.Eventually Franco won which led to 40 years of dictatorship and hardship – let’s not forget that Europe and the USA tolerated this and eventually became “buddies” with him.

The objective behind this lecture is to give a little background to the present polemical situation in Tortosa.In the 1960s to remember the Battle of the Ebro and offer “glory” to the fallen (on Franco’s side), a fascist monument was erected in the river Ebro as it flows through the capital city of this region, Tortosa. Thirty-five years after his death and the introduction of democracy, membership of the EU and NATO, and a change of millennium, the monument still stands!Admittedly the first years after Franco’s death was maybe not the best moment to upset nostalgic extremists or the army (as seen in the attempted coup in 1982), but I think no one now can have any doubts about Spain’s acceptance of democracy. Governments have come, governments have gone, but no one has had the political will to carry out the people’s will.

While there have been various social-citizen campaigns to have this monstrosity removed, obviously there are arguments in favour of maintaining it: some say it helps us remember how bad the Civil War and Franco were; others claim, if we remove its fascist symbols it could commemorate the fallen on both sides; or, suitably explained, it could be a monument for peace; it’s a touristic photo of Tortosa; it symbolises Tortosa for many people; its removal would be an unnecessary waste of time and money, and so on ....

Personally I am not convinced by any of these. Nor are the 2000 people who have signed a petition asking Tortosa’s council to take steps to get rid of this horror. Apparently the council will debate this next month – watch this space!

The Manic Street Preachers sang about the Spanish Civil War with If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next on 1998’s album This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours. Here's a video with images of Franco and the Civil War.

The beauty of music is that there is always something else to discover. I only knew George Harrison's original version of My Sweet Lord (orginal may not be true given that it is claimed to be a rip-off of He's So Fine - judge for yourselves) until last week when a fellow blogger passed me this clip. This version is from 2002's Concert For George, featuring Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne among many other famous musicians and singers.

Bloggers’ Action Day 2010 is about Water.Get up, go to the toilet, water. Shower, water. Breakfast, cup of tea anyone? Water. Teeth, wtaer.In the car and off to work, the car needs water. At work maybe a coffee or two, more water. Lunch, vegetables irrigated with water and washed in water. And so on ... As they say, water is life, life is water. It’s very easy to write this sittting here in Europe with all the water we need, and if we want more, just open your wallet. It’s easy to spare a moment to think about the millions of people who do not have access to water in good conditions, or who simply do not have water. Tomorrow will be another day, International Day of Bla Bla Bla and our thoughts will move on. However, there are many people out there who cannot move on, who have neither our state of well-being nor blogs to preach from. Tomorrow they still suffer. Will this cycle ever be broken? Are things getting better? The song Have You Ever Seen The Rain, by Creedence, talks about the cycles of water, of life ...

The Catalan group Lax'n'busto recorded a version of Pirritx eta Porrotx's Maite Zaitut a couple of years ago, called T'estimo molt - I love you. Here they are, first alone, and then together with the clowns themselves for a bi-lingual (Catalan/Basque) version.

Not all of my favourite songs are in English! Here's one in Basque, Maite Zaitut by the Basque clowns Pirritx eta Porrotx. Although the Basque language has nothing in common with Latin-based languages like Catalan, with a little help from the internet we can see that the title means I love you.

The 12th of October is, of course, Saint Hilda's Day, well known as the Abbess of Whitby in the 7th century. It was in this Abbey where Dracula would spend his first night in the UK. Which neatly brings us to today's song.Love Song For A Vampire, by Annie Lennox from 1992's film, Dracula.

Lactarius Deliciosus. The name says it all! In case any doubts remain, the English name of this little wonder is also very evocative. Saffron Milk Cap conjures up images of a magical culinary experience - which is fine as that what’s you get! A pleasant day mushrooming followed by an exquisite meal. For recipes and other info, our old friend Wikipedia.

To travel between the two main towns of the Ebro Delta, Deltebre and Sant Jaume, you had two options. Although the towns directly face each other over the water, you either had to take a 40 km round trip to find the nearest bridge or use the “ferry” shown in the photo. After a long wait, a bridge has finally been built this year to connect the two towns. Luckily one of the traditional ferries will keep working, for tourists, so we’ll still be able to show the kids how we used to meander across the Ebro’s waters.Given the Ebro’s recent history, here’s Simon and Garfunkel with A Bridge Over TroubledWater from 1970.

Never been down a coal mine luckily, but being from South Yorkshire I know plenty who have and plenty who have suffered underground. For better or for worse, Mrs Thatcher put a stop to that and now we have no miners, no reason to suffer, just people on the dole waiting for the state to dish out their “daily bread”.Mining may not be in my blood, but it is on my mind, so I’m sending out my best wishes and hopes for a swift rescue for those poor guys trapped underground in Chile.Here’s Billy Bragg, of course, with A Miner’s Life.

One General Strike later and we’re still struggling to reach the end of the month here, both individually and as a country. Thinking out of the box (as the experts say), though, maybe we’ve blamed the government, banks, and unions enough, and it’s time to accept our share of the blame for this crisis. Who makes us borrow the easy money banks offer? Who makes us vote for “more of the same” every 4 years? This week Catalan news explained that thousands of Metro (the underground/subway) users sneak through the gates without paying every day. Whatever happened to those people we see in American films getting their newspapers and leaving the money with no one watching over them? Who are we to be blaming everyone else for this mess when honesty and responsibility starts with ourselves. So endeth the sermon!Underground? What about Down in a Tube station at midnight, by The Jam from 1978’s All Mod Cons.

Tony Curtis died yesterday at the age of 85. Among the amazing list of films he acted in, perhaps one of the most well-known is Some Like It Hot (1959). Here he is together with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe performing Running Wild.